Relaxing weekend in and around Hamilton

One of the few saving graces of the current job I'm doing is that it's quiet and doesn't seem to tire me out to much. Tuesday I met up with a friend from CCU (previous job) and went for drinks and food in Mt Eden, really nice evening, and good to be getting out doing something different of an evening. Wednesday Sal and Si came up to Auckland to say goodbye to Si's parents and drop them off at the airport so they joined us for dinner before heading back down to Hamilton.
Thursday we met up with Gemma Cartwright and her boyfriend Byron and went in to Auckland city for dinner before going to the Civic theatre to watch a performance of Avenue Q! Brilliantly funny, and really light-hearted comedy, and, surprise surprise, just James' type of comedy!

For the weekend since Sal was working 4pm till 10pm with call back till 8am we decided to spend the weekend down in Hamilton.

(photo - Si looking special!)

We arrived around 7pm and headed out for a curry, we spent the evening in with Si having take-away and watching a DVD. Saturday morning we got up relatively early and headed over to Rotorua to the Redwood forest. On one side of the Redwood forest there is a couple who have set up business from a campervan with the hiring of good quality mountain bikes. Heading in to the forest there is an amazing mountain biking course set up with loads of different tracks rated from 1-5 depending on difficulty, they are all 1 way and no access to hikers, which makes it the perfect playgound!
After spending 2 hours in the forest we headed straight back to Hamilton for Sal to go to work. After dropping Sal off we went to the tennis courts and played several rounds, then just in case people thought we were slacking Si and I decided to to finish the day with a 20 minute run! Si then cooked James and me a lovely spag bol and we curled up in front of a good movie until Sal got home.

Sunday we all had a good lie in, on waking I cooked everyone a good eggs benedict to fill our stomachs before heading over to Raglan to hit the surf. Perfect surfing conditions for beginners with 2-3ft waves that were clean and crisp, managed to stand up several times and ride the waves in to the beach - perfect! We then grabbed a coffee in Raglan before heading back to Auckland for a home cooked roast lamb - New Zealands best!

Tauranga and the world of Kiwi fruit!

Sal and Si headed over to Tauranga early Friday morning with Thelma and Roy in order to enjoy a day swimming with the dolphins, unfortunately I had to work till late on Friday night so we decided to head over early on Saturday morning.

Once we met up with Sal and Si we headed over to Kiwi 360, where we learnt all about Kiwi farming. Not as interesting as it sounds, believe it or not! But obviously there was no escaping the stupidity of Si! (photo shows it nicely!) There was however, a helicopter ride down to the coast and seeing as Si and I (unlike Sal with her exciting job) have never ridden in a helicopter before, we decided to take a ride.

Having had enough excitement for one day (no really!) we decided to spend the evening in and had a very chilled night with a BBQ, beers and cards.

Sunday we had another lazy start, checked out the surf (which was rubbish) and headed over to Waihi to the Karangahake gorge. The Karangahake gorge was an old gold mining village, all of which remains are some lovely walks through some of the old mines and along the gorge. After that we headed back to Auckland and prepared for the next week at work.

Bara's folks arrive in New Zealand

Friday Sal and Si had the day off and headed up to Auckland to pick up Si's parents, Roy and Thelma. From the airport, Sal and Si came via my work, where I managed to get away early and we all headed back to our house in Mt Eden.

Since we all had the weekend off we decided it would be far better to spend it up in Auckland doing some relatively laid back things in order to acclimatise Roy and Thelma. Friday afternoon we took them in to Mt Eden for coffee and cake we then headed up the Mount for some pretty views over the city. That evening we cooked them some of the fish that we caught last weekend with a few bottles of wine and good chat.

Saturday I had to head in to work for a morning ward round while Sal and Si had a lie in before heading over to Waiheke Island with Si's floks. We had a wine tour booked on Waiheke Island, and so I headed straight down to the Ferry port after work where I met up with them before touring the Island.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't amazing, but had enough clearings in order to be able to take in the amazing scenery. After 3 wineries (with plenty of wine flowing) we were all feeling a little tipsy and headed back to Auckland for the evening. Luckily the weather cleared up that evening and we all enjoyed a nice BBQ before heading out to Mt Eden for drinks.

Sunday we headed over to sky tower for a nice brunch. We had an amazing 2 course breakfast with juice and coffee in the revolving restaurant. We were lucky enough to get amazing weather and therefore perfect views over the city. After breakfast we went to Piha for the afternoon via a trip to a ski sale, where we spent far too much money on ski equipment for the upcoming season. Beautiful beach, made even better by the by the beautiful weather.

Sunday evening Sal, Si, Roy and Thelma headed back to Hamilton whist James and I chilled out preparing for the next week